Research and Development in the Field of Parallel Kinematic Systems in Europe

Abstract

In 1994 two American machine tool companies, Giddings & Lewis and Ingersoll, surprised the world with the presentation of a new type of machine tool. The Hexapod platform introduced by Mannesmann-Rexroth in 1990 and used as an automobile testing platform did not attract nearly as much attention as the presentation of the machine tools at the Chicago Trade Fair in 1994. Both of these machines were based on the paradigm of the parallel kinematic structure, developed by Steward in England in 1965 [1] which was a further development of his patent from 1964 [2]. The two machine tool companies named these new machine tools “Hexapod”. This name originates from the six basic constructional components of the machine — telescopic struts with numerically controlled drive units which, by changes in their respective lengths, control six degrees of freedom (position and orientation) of a platform. These new machine tool types stimulated the imagination of researchers world-wide, thus triggering the search for new improved kinematic structures for machine tools. But the question remains — how new are these activities?